New Game: First Job Versus Now

Watching New Game, or specifically, watching Suzukaze Aoba working at her first job reminded me a lot of the time when I first joined rank as part of the working class. Not unlike Aoba, I was intrigued with the way a company generally works: meetings, deadlines and demanding customers.

Perhaps I’m one of the lucky ones or maybe lazy ones, I have no prior working experience before landing my first job. Yes, I did a three months internship once after completing my studies because it’s one of the requirements to complete my degree. And that’s just about it. So you can imagine my trouble of trying to complete Twitter’s trend: #sevenfirstjobs.

Anyway, back to New Game and Aoba.

One of the quality Aoba has is her eagerness to perform. When assigned a task as mundane as following the exercises from a textbook, she did it with enthusiasm. I can’t speak for everyone, but I was like that as well when I first started out. No matter how boring is the task, I’ll do it with great enthusiasm only because I wanted to impress. Nowadays, to impress is the last thing on my mind.

In episode six, there’s a miscalculation on project schedule and Aoba was asked to choose between staying some nights or working on the weekends to make up for lost time. Inline with her great enthusiasm, she chose both options. In fact, she looks like she really enjoy working overtime. When I first had to clock in more hours, I accepted it as part of the job. It’s normal in my industry anyways. Although I never end up sleeping in the office, there was a period I often left work late at nights and worked seven days a week. These days, I’ll leave work on time whenever it’s possible and avoid coming in over the weekends.

So what has changed?

New Game paints a rosy picture of how a company runs. Either that, or Aoba is extremely lucky to be in the presence of such a fun and positive leader, Yamagi Kou and friendly seniors. Based on personal experience and stories from others, working experience is always tainted by office politics, backstabbing or irresponsible teammates and impossibly demanding management. Or it could simply be a different company culture because I simply can’t imagine anyone in my company who would use a bear sleeping bag at work…

These are just some random thoughts popping into my head after watching New Game. The anime itself is a fun, light series. Just the kinda anime I look forward to after a long day at work.

Exactly – I’ll always think why should I make use of my time to accommodate the lack of proper resource management and planning on bosses’ part. Besides, taking break from work and refresh ourselves may actually enable us to perform better.

I still haven’t watched New Game and I’m kind of thinking I’m going to let it pass at this point. If it was going to give some insight into the industry I probably would have checked it out, or if it was going to take a critical look at the positives and negatives of starting working life I would definitely check it out. However, ever review I’ve read seems to clearly imply this anime is just a sweet story about a girl who is starting work.
Thanks for sharing.

It’s looked a bit too peaceful in New Game! backstabbing really is a problem at work.
One could say that the game industry is more laid back or the project related workflow turns everyone into a friendly teamplayer. Aoba’s enthusiasm surprised me a few times, but when she really enjoys her job so much I don’t hold it against her.

Haha working together with so many enchanting lady’s would boost my motivation, too.
…unlike a nagging boss XD